Fantastic Four

I’m really bummed that the Fantastic Four reboot flopped. They nailed the origin story and the cast was spot on, but the film’s inconsistency, especially towards the end, really dragged it down. Up until the final battle, I was pretty happy with how the story was unfolding. It even had a surprisingly dark tone at times, and I appreciated the attempt to take a different approach than previous films. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite come together. The final showdown with Doom was just a mess of digital chaos, and it hit me then how much potential had been wasted. That said, I don’t think Fantastic Four is a total disaster. I wasn’t bored and left the theater relatively satisfied, but watching it again at home made some of the flaws more glaring and harder to ignore. Plus, why is the movie barely over an hour and a half? We’ll probably never know what the film could’ve been without the creative conflicts between Fox and Josh Trank, but I believe it could have been a solid foundation for future installments. Some elements were really well done, but as a whole, it just didn’t work and that overshadows the good parts. If this had been a pilot episode for a TV series, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But as a big-budget blockbuster with a $120 million price tag, it just can’t hold up, especially with some effects looking more like TV quality. It’s a shame the potential was squandered. (2018-05-05)

An origin story like crazy, that could never find a favorable reception with the audience. It contains so many separate films that it remains almost untenable as a whole. In the first layer, it goes through the exploration of other worlds, in the second it explores oneself when trying to succeed in your field despite unfavorable circumstances. And in the third layer, a military dilemma is projected, and ultimately also the predictable realm of an action comic. To fit all of this into one blockbuster would take three hours, and even then it wouldn't be easy. Josh Trank attempts to master it in ninety minutes, which is complete folly, but it's so appealing to me because of the fight with the windmills. Also because he knew how to lead the viewer to the characters – primarily through the boyish charm of Miles Teller and the closeups on Kate Mara's eyes. That's why it's a pity that the birth of an iconic villain comes across completely empty and doesn't create a craving for a potential (however unlikely) sequel. (2016-01-12)

An old-fashioned, very good film that took a different path than the current comic book wave, which hasn't been used in a few years, and unfortunately it backfired. Most viewers probably wanted to see something else, but I enjoyed Fantastic Four without shame. In my opinion, there's actually nothing wrong with it - the viewer cares about the likeable characters, the science-boy atmosphere gradually transitions smoothly into a big adventure, the special effects are great, and the terrific music by Marc Beltrami and Philip Glass is one of the best to come out of the comic book soundtrack genre in years. It's a shame that we probably won't see any sequel(s). (2015-12-23)

I don't like comic book films about heroes with superpowers because I consider them to be heavily infantile and their audience clearly belongs to a different age category than mine. But even within what comic books work with and strive for, Fantastic Four tragically fails. It amounts to sterile boredom, where all attempts at dramatic transcendence fail and where it lacks even what its genre colleagues possess, namely exciting action and plenty of special effects. The ratio of investment to result here is catastrophic. Overall impression: 10%. (2018-02-04)

This is a film with zero ambition and it has no idea whether it wants to be a party of geeks gifted with superpowers or a comic thriller about an unexpected gift from another dimension. It’s a dramaturgically-muddled mess in which nothing works, especially the foursome itself. The origins of the heroes are referenced through futile dialogue and with zero chemistry, so it’s pretty loose, although a few heads do surprisingly explode at the end. Trank has created a movie without a face, and I only half believe all the crying over Fox's intervention. It's clear that it was heavily edited, but if a group is called the Fantastic Four... (2015-08-13)